Sunday, March 25, 2012

As some of you know, I don't have a television at home. That means my screen entertainment comes in the form of watching Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube. This evening as I was bopping around YouTube like I do sometimes, I came across a short video titled Why Do We Dream? The video is a short explanation of some of the theories and science of the human sleep cycle.

After watching Why Do We Dream? I clicked over to a much longer BBC production on the topic. The BBC production, also titled Why Do We Dream? is a 55 minute documentary that includes interviews with researchers who are trying to answer the questions where do dreams come from and why do we dream?

Both videos are embedded below.

Applications for Education
Some of the content in these videos might be classified as pseudo-science. They are still interesting looks into how our brains work. These are exactly the type of video that I liked to show in my non-instructional homeroom time as a way to spark discussions from intellectual curiosity.

The Way We Worked is a small collection of images from the U.S. National Archives. The collection is designed to show the way that work evolved over the 130 year span from 1857 to 1987. The collection is divided into five parts; How We Worked, What We Wore to Work, Where We Worked, Dangerous and Unhealthy Work, and Conflict at Work. There is a short silent film of people at work in various occupations to introduce the galleries.

Applications for EducationThe Way We Worked could be a good resource to use as part of lesson on the history labor and labor rights in the United States. Put some of the images into a slideshow to spark discussion and inquiry about the types of jobs blue collar workers have done over the years. Have students go through the galleries on their own and identify jobs that no longer exist. Then ask them to identify jobs that exist today that might not exist fifty years from now.